


the time of our lives

by Reclusive_Unicorn



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 02:58:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1802869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reclusive_Unicorn/pseuds/Reclusive_Unicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This isn’t how Bucky thought he’d be spending what he’d been told are supposed to be the best years of his life, but he figures that it could be worse.</p><p>That’s when <i>he</i> shows up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the time of our lives

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by an anonymous message i got on tumblr: "I saw the post re: chubby teen sebastian stan and how he said he was teased relentlessly and called "fat leo dicaprio" when he was in high school and my heart just exploded with protectiveness but now I also would give my SOUL for a modern hs au fic about chubby!Bucky and his skinny boyfriend steve..."
> 
> i feel like this is still a bit rough at the edges but overall im satisfied with it. no beta, all mistakes are my own. feel free to point them out if you see any.

There’s not a taunt or insult that Bucky hasn’t ever heard before about his weight. He’s been hearing them since he was old enough to walk, from both kids and teachers alike. From the classic:  _‘Are you_ sure  _you want to eat that?’_  to his teacher’s ever so helpful advice:  _‘Maybe other kids wouldn’t bully you so much if you just lost some weight.’_ He’d heard that one was in seventh grade, when he had walked into his English class to find his assigned desk an utter wreck. Candy wrappers littered in his chair with chocolate smeared across the desk’s wooden surface writing out  **‘LICK IT UP FATTY’.**   It was the first and last time Bucky asked an adult for help.

Time’s passed, and it hasn't gotten any better. Bucky learned he had to give as hard as he got from the other boys if he wanted even a shred of their respect, and his first year of high school had him coming home with more black eyes, split lips and pink detention slips than he was willing to admit. Now in his second year to avoid the trouble his mother begs him not to get into Bucky will just skip his classes altogether, keeping up with his school work in the library thanks to the school’s online blackboard. Sometimes after lunch he sneaks out to the back to smoke with Natasha and Clint until the final bell.

This isn’t how Bucky thought he’d be spending what he’d been told are supposed to be the best years of his life, but he figures that it could be worse.

That’s when  _he_ shows up.

The new guy reeks of home schooled naïveté and is much too small for a boy his age, all sharp angles and jutting bones without an ounce of fat on him. He sits next to Bucky in the only class he’s never had trouble in and never says a word, so he writes the guy off as just another quiet unassuming nerd and doesn’t think twice about him. Until a week later a fight breaks out in the hall between some boys that have been intent on giving Bucky hell since the start of the year with the new kid smack dab in the middle of it. Bucky hadn't been close enough to hear what was said to start it all, but he had watched an all too familiar look of pain that quickly turned to anger bloom across the new kid’s face. Close enough to see the kid get his shit kicked in, repeatedly, until teachers swarmed the crowd of kids gathered to watch like vultures and pull them all apart.

When everything dies down and things go back to normal Bucky cuts class to find the kid sitting outside the principal’s office, knuckles skinned raw and sniffling.

“Hey.”

Blue eyes snap up at him from behind thick rimmed glasses, "Uh, hey.”

“So, what’d they say about you?”

“Excuse me?”

“The dudes who handed your ass to you earlier,” Bucky starts as he takes a seat next to him, “What’d they do?”

The kid chews on his bottom lip for moment before answering, “One of ‘em was talking about someone else first. Saying how he was finally gonna get back at ‘Fat DiCaprio’ for last week.”

Bucky goes rigid, that was the school’s nickname for him. A teacher had said he looked handsome on picture day once, just like Leonardo DiCaprio. The comment had opened up a free for all for his classmates to viciously swoop in and even the same teacher who had praised him mindlessly laughed along with their jokes. Last week, one of those boys who’d helped spread the name had tried to jump him one-on-one during the walk home and Bucky had taken a glass bottle to the guy’s head in pent up rage. In hindsight it had been an awful decision, over impulsive even for him. There could have been very real life consequences for Bucky if things had gone wrong, but there was no taking it back now and no way was he ever going to apologize for it.

“He said a lot of other awful things about the guy that I’d rather not say. Before I knew it I was telling him off for being a coward and an asshole, then he called me a shrimpy little fag that should mind his own business, and now here I am." From the way he doesn't stumble over the slur Bucky thinks it's probably not the first time someone's called him that.

"Here you are." Bucky nods, amazed. Not a single person has ever stood up for him the way this one has, and he did it without knowing anything about him. It sends a twisty feeling through the pit of Bucky's stomach that he doesn't know how to identify.

"I'm Steve, by the way. Steve Rogers," The kid sticks out his wiry little hand.

"I’m Fat DiCaprio," He shakes Steve’s hand and tries to quell his own nerves as Steve’s face goes red in embarrassment, "But my friends call me Bucky." However few there are, teachers insist on using his real name and the only friends he has these days just stand around and puff out wisps of smoke without a word.

"Bucky," Steve tries the name out on his tongue and smiles, “Nice to meet you."

"Likewise, now when and how is my grand comeuppance supposed to go down?"

Steve tries to recall as many details as he can, and it  just so happened Steve lives not far from him, so if Bucky wants Steve can walk him home—“Keep you company, is what I meant,” Steve corrects, face going red again—He’s not much of a fighter, but it’s better than having to face those bullies alone. Bucky thinks that he’d like that very, very much.

They’re inseparable after from then on, and Bucky is fast to find out that Steve has a huge chip on his shoulder with a temper to match if you push him hard enough, can’t keep his sarcastic little mouth shut even when his life depends on it and has a need to have the last word in an argument that’s borderline obsessive. It gets Steve into as much trouble as Bucky expects and then some. By the end of the first month of their friendship Bucky's pulled Steve out of enough fights to last him a life time. 

He asked once after a particularly brutal beat down why Steve couldn't just keep his damn mouth shut. Steve had glared defiantly at him and admitted that he’d been moved over from a nearby school district because he couldn’t stop getting into fights. Not just normal run of the mill fights over pointless drama, either. Steve talked about how he’d stepped in to stop sexual harassment and bullies tormenting people while teachers turned a blind eye to it all.

"Ignoring them isn’t gonna make them magically give it up, and if you start running away then they won't ever let you stop." Steve finished, daring Bucky to counter his words. Bucky had only gripped his shoulder tighter as he walked him to the nurse's office.

Months pass before Bucky realizes just how hard he's truly fallen for Steve and it’s too late to do anything about it except continue to ignore it. There’s no chance in hell anyone would ever want to be with a fat waste of space like him, and Steve’s constant complaining about how he couldn’t get a  _girl_ friend proved even more how it was never going to happen. Steve hanging out with people or dating people that aren’t him made Bucky’s heart flop every time he thought about it. So he tries to do his part as the best friend and help score Steve a date at any possible turn in hopes he can get over it.

‘Getting over it’ is easier said than done, and turns out not many girls want to go out with a scrawny little boy who would have lean up to kiss them, no matter how much Bucky smooth talks about Steve to them. Doesn’t help what people say about them being around each other so much either. Oh, Bucky knows about all the snide whisperings behind their backs’, students calling them a pair of fags, how they should kill themselves already, and worse. The way teachers shake their heads at them when they walked by and thought neither of them was looking. Listens in on their discussions of how Steve was such a good boy, that it was such a shame he’s gone in with the wrong kind of people.

“Maybe we should stop hangin’ out together.” Bucky says one day. They’re in his room pretending to study for midterm exams when they really are laid out on the bed together with his laptop having an impromptu Star Trek marathon.

Steve hits the space bar to pause Spock in mid-sentence and looks at him like he’s just been told his mother died all over again, “Bucky, what the  _hell?_ ”

“Steve, you’re not ever gonna get a girlfriend if you got me trailing behind you all the damn time.” Bucky’s proud of the way his voice doesn’t crack as he continues, “I mean, isn’t that what you want? So why keep hanging around with my fat ass?”

The silence stretches out for a long time as Steve stares Bucky down until he’s squirming under the gaze. Steve might be small but his anger had always rolled off him in waves that could be felt for miles. Right now Steve’s the most pissed off he’s ever seen him, and Bucky’s scared he’s about to drown.  

Steve’s face slowly starts to soften as the waves recede. Bucky’s knows when he’s being pitted, and the expression on Steve’s face isn’t pity. Its fondness mixed with something else that makes that twisty sensation in his gut come out in full force.

Finally Steve lets out a long suffering sigh, “You’re such a moron.”

Before Bucky can say a word the laptop is being pushed away and Steve has rolled on top of him, kissing him until they’re both dizzy. They pull apart so Steve can catch his breath. Once he has it Bucky pulls Steve back down and doesn’t let him up until his mom is calling them down for dinner.

This isn’t how Bucky though he’d be spending what he’d been told are supposed to be the best years of his life. It’s not easy for either of them, not by a long shot, but when he smiles at Steve and get a huge grin in return, Bucky thinks there’s isn’t any other way he’d want things to be.

 

**Author's Note:**

> leave nice messages or come cry with me about steve/bucky [here](http://buckytrashboatbarnes.tumblr.com/).


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